40 years – 9 cities Cities in Lower Saxony

Historic cities at the pulse of time

40 years ago, on 6 March 1984 during the ITB in Berlin, nine cities in Lower Saxony made their first major joint appearance. At that time, the directors of the tourist boards and heads of the tourist offices of the cities presented their new working group under the title “The Wonderful Nine – Historic cities in Northern Germany”. The founding agreement between the cities was still typed up on a typewriter, brochures were painstakingly produced in various languages and distributed at travel fairs. The first spokesman for the co-operation was Ralph Jarrett. Head of the Office for Tourism and Congresses in Hannover.

The cities saw themselves as ambassadors for Lower Saxony worldwide. The initial focus was on visiting international travel fairs and trade events. Employees from all member cities travelled for the “Wonderful Nine”. According to the agreement, one of the “tourism directors” always had to be present. The “9” also had their own stand at the International Tourism Exchange every year.

More than 300 travel fairs and other specialist events have been visited over the past 40 years and countless brochures have been distributed.
From the very beginning, it was important for the co-operation to have advertising material available in all relevant languages.

A lot has happened in 40 years. The city co-operation has always had its finger on the pulse of the times and has taken current trends and developments into account in its activities. Major events such as EXPO 2000 or the 2006 Football World Cup provided the occasion for extensive marketing campaigns. However, it has also reacted to less favourable developments. In 2020, against the backdrop of the coronavirus crisis, a campaign was developed under the motto “Support your Neighbour”, which was intended to whet the appetite for city experiences right next door. A year later, a call was made before Christmas to “give away the 9 cities”. Of course, this was also done digitally. In addition to posters, high-reach social media campaigns were implemented.

Braunschweig, Celle, Einbeck, Göttingen, Goslar, Hameln, Hanover, Hildesheim and Wolfenbüttel are the current member cities. The Autostadt in Wolfsburg and Hannover Airport have been strategic partners of the co-operation for several years. The marketing co-operation “9 cities + 2 in Lower Saxony” is particularly active in Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, Austria and Switzerland. The marketing activities in the target markets are extensive, ranging from presentations at specialist events, cooperation with tour operators and publications in travel magazines to online and social media campaigns. The website, translated into eight languages on an AI basis, is the most important medium of the cooperation.